Smithsonian.com

In the Land of the Long-Distance Runners

Mexico's Copper Canyon is home to great athletes, the Tarahumara

On a quiet Sunday afternoon deep in the Sierra Madre, Tarahumara
Indians from the hamlet of Samachique run a traditional footrace: a
mere 40 miles for the women, 80 for the men, without benefit of
either sneakers or pavement. While the customary wagers
(buréma) are placed by the watching crowd, the male racers
sling a wooden ball with their feet, as the women toss
cloth-covered hoops along the course  all for the sake of a
neighborhood's glory.

Still one
of the most traditional of all native groups in North America, the
Tarahumara, as writer David Roberts discovered, continue to face
change in their ruggedly beautiful homeland.

The past 400 years have seen missionaries and miners, ranchers
and farmers, move in on this land. In response, the Tarahumara fled
into higher, less fertile areas of Copper Canyon. There, using
manure from farm animals introduced by the Spanish, they were able
to fertilize their corn, 75 percent of their diet today.

Like
this frugal economy, Tarahumara religion shows hybridization born
in the face of change. Crosses may grace the hilltops above many
settlements, but each person is believed to possess many souls.

Today, the estimated 70,000 Tarahumara face a new challenge:
tourism, which threatens to undermine their lifeways while bringing
them money for their goods. It is, as William Merrill, the
Smithsonian anthropologist who has lived and studied among them,
notes, "a two-edged sword."